CANADA: ORDER ESTABLISHING SPECIFICATIONS RELATING T0 NON-AUTOMATIC WEIGHING DEVICES AND ORDER REGARDING WEIGHTS AND MEASURES SPECIFICATIONS The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6. G/TBT/Notif.97.220. 1. Member to Agreement notifying: CANADA. If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2). 2. Agency responsible: Industry Canada. Agency or authority designated to handle comments regarding the notification can be indicated if different from above. 3. Notified under Article 2.9.2. 4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. ICS numbers may be provided in addition, ~where applicable): Non-automatic weighin~g devices. 5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document: Order Establishing Specifications Relating to Non-Automatic Weighing Devices and Order Regarding Weights and Measures Specifications (pages 1553-1574). 6. Description of content: This initiative concerns the adoption of new specifications for non-automatic weighing devices. The Weights and Measures Act provides requirements for maintaining measurement accuracy and equity in commercial transactions where measurement forms the basis of the transaction. The approval of type and the inspection of each device before it is used in trade to ensure compliance to recognized standards, are measures acknowledged as essential to maintaining an acceptable level of equity and a high degree of confidence among industry and the Canadian public. These measures are also considered essential ~ by Canada's major trading partners.~ ~ The Weights and Measures Regulations and Ministerial Specifications prescribe design, ~compostition, construction, performance, installation and use requirements for weighing and measuring devices. The actual Regulations that prescribe requirements mainly for mechanical devices were adopted in 1974; additional requirements for electronic weighing devices were adopted in 1979. Many of these requirements, which have not been updated since, are obsolete considering current weighing and measuring device technology, and differ significantly from standards applied by Canada's major trading partners. As a member of the Organisation internationale de me

AC T='1'>trologie le

AC T='1'>gale, and a signatory of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, Canada must, to the greatest extent possible, and taking into account international standardization activities, make compatible its standards-related measures and procedures for product approval. 7. Objective and rationale: Reducing barriers to trade. 8. Relevant documents: Canada Gazette, Part I, 17 May 1997. 9. Proposed date of adoption: 1 September 1997; Proposed date of entry into force: 1 September 1997. 10. Final date for comments: 6 July 1997. 11. Text available from: National enquiry point. (0157)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0462 19970610\FO-0012)